Before being made even more famous by a pair of Jet Li classics in the 1990s, a popular martial arts hero was portrayed even more times by a different genre icon. Jet Li added another hit to an already-impressive resume when he starred in Corey Yuen’s Fong Sai-yuk, playing the titular character.
Fong Sai-yuk was a 1993 kung fu period about a trained fighter who participates in a martial arts tournament and unwittingly wins himself a wife in the process. Afterward, he winds up aligned with the Red Lotus Society and their efforts to oppose the evil Manchus who control China. The film was successful enough to warrant a sequel, Fong Sai-yuk 2, which continued the hero’s adventures.
As evidenced by its 88% score on Rotten Tomatoes, Fong Sai-yuk is now recognized as one of Jet Li’s greatest martial arts movies. As for Fong Sai-yuk 2, it has a reputation as a worthy sequel. All things considered, Fong Sai-yuk is one of the actor’s memorable roles. However, another star – Alexander Fu Sheng – did even more with the Chinese folk legend.
Before Jet Li’s 2 Fong Sai-yuk Movies, Alexander Fu Sheng Played Him 3 Times
During the mid to late 1970s, Alexander Fu Sheng was one of the top stars of Shaw Brothers, the leading kung fu movie studio in the Hong Kong film industry. One of the performances that contributed greatly to his rise was his role as Fong Sai-yuk in director Chang Cheh’s Heroes Two.
Fong Sai-yuk is a major figure in Chinese folklore and a hero associated with the supposed fall of the Shaolin Temple. However, he never existed in real life.
Released in 1974, the old-school kung fu film told the story of two rebel heroes who come together to stand against the Manchus in the aftermath of the Shaolin Temple’s destruction in the Qing Dynasty. The movie, which was a hit for Shaw Brothers, led to Chang Cheh directing multiple movies with similar themes, settings, stories, and even the same characters.
Retroactively referred to as “The Shaolin Cycle,” the Chang Cheh-directed series of six, loosely-connected movies all starred Alexander Fu Sheng and dealt in some way with the fall of the Shaolin Temple, whether as an event that occurs within the story or an event that forms the catalyst for the plot.
In addition to Heroes Two, Alexander Fu Sheng played Fong Sai-yuk in two other Shaolin Cycle movies, Men from the Monastery and Shaolin Temple. Shaolin Temple was an all-star Shaw Brothers ensemble film that saw Fu Sheng’s Fong Sai-yuk join several Shaolin fighters in the fight to protect the Shaolin Temple.
Men from the Monastery, on the other hand, was a story akin to Heroes Two, except it followed three famous Shaolin warriors. In this one, Chang Cheh plays into the myths surrounding Fong Sai-yuk, depicting Fu Sheng’s character as a nigh-invincible martial artist who can only be killed when struck under the groin area.
All three are quality kung fu movies with excellent fight choreography, with Heroes Two and Shaolin Temple specifically standing out as two of Shaw Brothers’ best 1970s martial arts films, making Fu Sheng’s performances as Fong Sai-yuk a key part of his own cinematic legacy.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
